Chapter 1

World of Dragons, in the 19th Millenia Year 990 since the founding of the Hysponian Empire

The Elder of the village called Heorod, took the material components for the spell out of the vast ancient treasury hidden in the ancient fortress keep that made the heart of the small community. He was sad every time the material wealth of their forbearers had to be used for a spell. This time it was going to be the costliest summons their people have done in a hundred years. He was but a small child the last time, yet he understands the risks of summoning a hero or beast from the other worlds.

He also knew that the ancient mages who did the last summons, never taught the acolytes everything, so he was worried the results could be just as bad as the monstrosity that was targeting his people. What choice did he have, to the north were impassible mountains filled with Dragons and all manner of creatures that mere mortals couldn’t face.

To the south were the Human Kingdoms who hated his kind as mere monsters, and only valued as slaves, and the secret lands under the mountains where all kinds of evil lurked, the rumored lost empires of the dark elves and their spider god. They couldn’t leave and staying held great risks. This latest horror from the abyss came on cloudy nights and stole away villagers. A few were eaten the rest had vanished.

He turned to leave the treasury and sighed. Looking over the doorway that led up to the Keep. He saw the map of the world on a special tapestry.

The land was shaped like a segmented crescent, that reached both the north and south poles before sweeping back towards the center.

The village elder has read much of the known histories, of how once the world was ruled by Great and terrible Dragon Gods, until the four world powers over turned their rule, and banished them.

To the south was the human continent. It was mostly taken up by the Hysponian Empire that was founded about nineteen thousand years ago. History records that an army of well-trained elite troops made up of High Humans conquered a city to the south, they slowly created the first Human Empire, the remaining nations on that continent are a part of a Commonwealth that owes allegiance to the High Humans and the Emperor of Hysponia.

To the North, and where their village technically sat was the Continent of Dragons. Unlike the human continent, demi-humans ruled the vast majority of these lands. There was Elves of the Faelands on the west half of the continent. At the top of the world Dwarves maintained a throne at what they called the true North Pole. In the eastern part of the continent were an array of Empires. Unfortunately, the southern portion sat the massive Dragon Mountains, this was where their village could be found. Some of the peaks are believed to be so tall as to be outside of breathable air. Under these mountains are cavernous lands known as the Darklands, they are ruled by Dark elves, and other beings which never come up to see the daylight. Which is where the problem lies for his village, every hundred years or so some monster or other fiend finds the rout to the surface that leads to their village. Fortunately, such beings have little tolerance for light, and tonight’s full moon is not only a perfect time for summoning aid, but also a reprieve from the assault by the creature.

He looked again to the map and wondered what the other two major continents in the southern hemisphere were like. All he knew was they were split in twain by a river that was large enough in places to be considered a long narrow sea. With the western side being mountainous with large jungles, and the eastern side to be a flatland with grassy plains, those lands where nearly inaccessible by land, with a massive dessert separating Hysponia and the lands to the south.

After a moment’s pause, he checked the offerings in his hand, and left out the door and up the stairs to the waiting courtyard with his collection of treasures.

Somewhere in Los Angeles California, Earth, 2019.

The person sat in their chair, staring at the screen. The only enjoyment left in their life was sitting and staring at what other people were doing with their lives and arguing with them about politics and religion. Gone were their days of youth, they had had a full life, they had decided today was it, they couldn’t go on, they had lived a hell of nearly 50 years of life, they had gender identity issues since they were a small child, lower back issues from their time in the US Marines, and trust issues with love from a failed marriage, and other dating mishaps which caused them to not only hate themselves, but to refuse to open up and allow anyone else to love them, they were sick of it all.

On their lap they had a m1911a1 service pistol. They had cleaned it, used it at the range, and loved this weapon, it was at their side everywhere they went. Leaning against the desk was their Daniel Defense Ambush 300 hunting rifle. This one was set up with hard sights, and they had been cleaning it earlier as they had been to the shooting range earlier that day. Unlike the service pistol it was illegal to purchase a service rifle as a civilian, so they had a long history of collecting AR15 variants. Some of these were so close to the real thing it would take an expert to tell them apart. However, the variants they actually liked best were specialized hunting rifles which often ended up lighter and less bulky than the ones meant to look like a M16.

The DD Ambush 300 had a small magazine with only 5 rounds and was very accurate up to 500 yards. This was fine for them, since the days of using a rifle to hit a target at over 1000 yards were long gone. Age has a way of making the distances with hard sights get shorter, sure they could use a scope, they had purchased many over their life, but it took away a vital portion of their pride as an expert shot to use them. The only thing between them and the target where prescription safety glasses, bits of metal, and the air which the bullets traveled. There was a special thrill when you got a perfect shot with hard sights that you never felt with a scope. Hell, the only type of hunting they liked better was with a bow, but since their health took a turn towards the worse, bow hunting was right out. You had to be in shape to use a bow perfectly, something their back refused to cooperate on.

They sat there and wondered if there was a heaven or hell. In their life looking to cure Gender Dysphoria they had studied all the worlds beliefs and mysteries. As a young child they were raised by their father who was Southern Baptist, their mom was Jewish, so technically they were too, but they never felt like it. As a young adult they joined the US Marine Corps. The Marines failed to cure the deep-down dysphoria they felt. So, they had gone on a spiritual journey around the world once free of service. They had sitting on a shelf in the room books and artifacts of all the world’s religions, and all the world’s magical traditions. Sure, science gave hormones, and surgery. Sadly, they were built like a football linebacker. Most women would have considered them a hunk when they were young. Even now with a ruined body, and a bald head, they were overwhelmingly masculine standing at six foot three inches when they stood tall. However, thanks to back problems they hunched a bit.

Ten years ago, they started a legal transition, hormones hardly helped as they add but do not take away. They had naturally large breasts, but they still looked like a monster of a man in the mirror. To make the dysphoria worse they had typical male pattern baldness, and no matter how many sessions of hair removal they still had a full beard. They had tried everything, they knew for a fact that there were no gods, no magic that could make a difference on Earth, they had accepted that Science was their only salvation, so far even science had its limits.

They lifted the pistol, chambered a round and closed their eyes. They placed it against their head, waited, and then cleared the chamber and holstered it, while crying. Not tonight then.

World of Dragons, time for a Summons

The large courtyard was cleared of all debris. It was marked with chalk markings by the village acolytes in the ancient magical ways of dragons. The summoning circle was almost as large as the courtyard which was about 500 paces of an average sized person.

On the Outside of the circle were four sacrificial alters at each of the cardinal points, north, south, east, and west. There was also the spot the elder would stand with his personal podium set up with his magical tools. The podium was set to face the magical pole in the east. Although people called it a magical pole, it wasn’t the same as the magnetic pole of the north. It was instead a point in the heavens that sat consistently to a spot in what was basically east for his community. Depending on where you were in the world it would be somewhere slightly different. Once an ancient wizard calculated the location of the magic pole. It was at a place that sat halfway between the world and the moon, always sitting basically at midnight on the equator as it’s shortest distance. It was an invisible point in the nights sky, unless on the rare occasions the moon passed that point, then it looked like a tiny dot against the bright white of the moon. He handed the acolytes the sacrifices for each of the alters and walked to his position next to his podium.

To the north alter was a precious geode beautiful on the inside yet earthy textures on the outside, this was to represent the Earth.

To the south a fire red ruby, that shone brightly and fiercely in the moons light and thus a gorgeous offering for fire.

To the West a perfect pearl the size of a human heart, Water so did love the beauty of a pearl.

Last but not least, for the Air in the East, a hand sized sapphire that was perfectly cut, aery and light.

Any one of these sacrifices could feed the village for a year, he was glad that their community had magical wealth still after thousands of years guarding the gateway to the abyss.

He was ready, yet he was scared. He memorized the spell perfectly, it was the things not written that troubled him. Usually spells of summoning contained names of the summon monsters and where the beings where found in the ether. This spell had no name, and the location of the summoned entity was said in words he didn’t understand. He learned them, as the spell did have a side bar of notes that included the pronunciations, his last fear was nowhere in the spell was any compulsion of obedience included, in fact there was a warning that any attempt at changing the spell to include one would cause everyone to be compelled to that which was summoned.

Still this was his peoples last chance spell, and it was one of the most powerful summonses they had. He remembered as a child when it was last used. The heroic being made of metal that roared with a massive sound and had four High Human’s as it’s master. The metal beast died shortly afterwards. It still lay in the center of the village with its long metal trunk pointing towards the cavern entrance that over looked the side of the village. The four High Humans left south after defeating their foes. That was almost a hundred years ago.

He wondered if the High Humans still lived, they were mysterious and amazing beings. Unlike the common human, High Humans had the potential to use magic like an elf and could fight in armor like an Orc. His peoples written histories said that it was the Dragons who took the first High Humans and created all the mortal races around two million years ago. Each of the mortal races were excellent at one thing but were weak in others.

His kind was strong at raw magic and seduction, they could convince people to do things. Most of their kind that became adventurers became Bards, only a few like himself choose to follow pure Magic. However, as their village stood at the entrance of the great abyss, their village had an ancient tradition of Wizards. He was always proud of being talented with learned magic. His only regret was his mentor died before all the oral traditions were taught.

He walked slowly to the podium, looked at each of his tools. He took the colorful cross and draped it over his head. He only wore this necklace when he had to do spell work. It used all the elements as a focus point. It also made his intelligence increase, which was great for spell work, but bad for social interaction, which was also important as village elder.

He then checked his wand which was made from a leg bone of a displacer beast. His knife was the claw tip of a gold dragon who gifted it to him as a young adventuring wizard.

The chalice was a simple cup given to the last village elder by the High Humans. It was a kidney shaped metal cup with a hinged metal handle. The cup was made from a type of star metal, it turned out to be quite good for magical ritual.

He then cleared his voice loudly so everyone in the valley could hear him. His use of Booming Voice was useful as village elder, it was a rare upgraded version of the Bard Spell Amplify which had expanded range that could be heard by everyone in the valley. “Everyone to your places, we begin in a moment.”

The people not a part of the summons had moved to the tower portion of the Keep and a few faces where watching from the many windows and fighting holes dotting the tower. All two thousand of his people were in the tower besides the clan’s mages, wizards, and witches for the summoning and the few town guards watching the walls. The Bards and clerics of the clan were in the keep ready to heal and help any who were in trouble.

The elder seeing that everyone was in position started his work.

He held up the claw dagger that was gold inlayed with magic runes and gems representing each of the elements. He then closed the circle in the courtyard and cast a simple purifying spell. Once he was satisfied that the circle was properly charged. He called on the power of the moon goddess, his peoples patron deity.

He then proceeded to call on each element and faced each cardinal direction calling on the guardian of each compass point. Facing the point of the magic pole, he started the summons.

It was now precisely Midnight at his location, it was time to harness the energies and powers of magic to their fullest. He started to glow with arcane power as he chanted the spell. Which in turn caused the summoning lines to change from chalk to magical barriers, filled with the light of the moon.

The alters glowed brightly in each of their elemental colors’ red for fire, blue for water, yellow for air, and green for earth.

For those watching they could see the colored energy were in the shape of the runes that ruled the elements which looked like triangles. The offerings slowly vanished, and the elemental brightness increased until it was painful to look directly at the alters.

The acolytes standing in a semi-circle behind the elder were singing and chanting in harmony their part of the incantation. The village elder in a firm a powerful voice recited the incantation perfectly. His words sounded as if a Dragon was speaking, as the language of magic was also the ancient language of Dragons.

At the crescendo of their voices, the elemental energies had been absorbed into the center of the circle and started to spin and merge. Everything inside the summoning circle started to look like a multi-colored tornado of air, earth, fire, and water reaching far in to the nights sky.

And then it stopped in sudden silence. The incantation was done. The tornado vanished. The energies had vanished in a blink of an eye. Only the outside circle had any power left as the barrier was still visible.

The village elder started to panic, as nothing was there. He was worried that they did it wrong somehow. He was about to move from his position when he saw a rip in spacetime, the entire center of the circle was replaced by a bright flash. Causing him to fall down.

In a house in L.A. in a part of town known as Northridge, but not for long.

They reached for their rifle, they would live another day. Every time they thought ‘now was the time’, the heaven hell question came to mind. Even though they were an atheist they couldn’t drive out the last nagging possibility that maybe there was something else unseen and unknown.

They stood up slung the rifle over their shoulder with one loaded magazine in their coat pocket. They were going to the guest bedroom they had converted into an armory. As they started to move, the power went out.

Then it hit, the most powerful earthquake they had ever felt. The windows glowed with all the colors in the rainbow. Then things started to fall, books on the shelves, the computer monitor, an old framed movie poster, etc.

They decided to sit under the desk in case the roof collapsed. Even the Earthquake of 1994 paled compared to this one.

They wondered what caused the lighting effect. ‘Funny what you think of when you don’t panic in the face of disaster’ they thought as the world bounced and shock.

Then as quickly as it started everything flashed in blinding light and the world was calm. They looked out from under the desk, everything was dark, they then reached into their coat and grabbed their cellphone and switched on the light.

The courtyard of the village Keep

The elder sat on the ground as he looked to the courtyard in front of him. Inside what remained of the magical circle was a single floor house. It did not look like the typical cottage, it was strangely designed. It barely fit in the center of the large space. it looked like it was made of smooth stone the color of parchment. On the roof sat red brick tiles in the shape of interlinked semi circles, and covering the tiles were metal frames which held aloft black windows angled in such a way to not be usable as windows. He could see that the edging of the house was made from dense wood, the windows where too large and clear. He could also hear someone stirring in the house.

The elder got up and dusted himself off and wondered where the entryway was.

Then a door opened, and he realized how obvious it was, he had assumed the rectangle stained glass window framed in wood was just a window.

From the door stepped out a massive human, they were at least a full head taller than your normal human, and where slightly taller than his people. It held a rectangle object which had a small white light in its hand. In its other hand it had a metal tool that looked like a small pair of plyers. On its back it had a metal staff strapped against their back. To its side it had a sheath holding a strange metal device on their side.

They stepped out of the house. They knew they had to check that the gas mains were off. They also had to check the house for risks. A strong earthquake could cause damage which would end up causing the house to become like a bomb if the gas was leaking. They didn’t notice that they were in a courtyard of an ancient keep, nor did they notice the group of people in robes staring as they walked the perimeter of the house to the gas shut off valve. The gas main auto shut off was not triggered, so they closed the valve manually and sighed with relief, hopefully the house won’t blow up now. They would have to open all the windows and find their camping gear and sleeping bag. They spoke out loud to no one “looks like I’m camping outside until the house can be inspected.”

As they turned to head back to the house, they heard a voice calling out. They looked out to where the street should be. In front of them was an elderly man in an elaborate cosplay of a demon. They had bluish white skin, black robes with magical stars and things, a colorful Rosicrucian cross around their neck, and devil style goat horns that looked glued to his forehead. To complete the look, he seemed to wear those heeled boots that made it look like he had goat legs. All in all, a very good cosplay.

They then noticed that instead of their neighbor’s house, there was a medieval style tower. They stepped forward and looked around them carefully and saw the keep walls in which their house was sitting in the courtyard of. This was the moment they realized they were not in the San Fernando Valley anymore, they wanted to make a Wizard of Oz joke, but decided this was way worse than the big one, and not anywhere as fun as the Wizard of Oz, plus they didn’t have a dog so talking to one seemed dumb.

The elder watched the person as they turned to face him, he noticed that he or she had female breasts and walked with a hunch. At the same time, it’s gate was masculine, the build was manly and from what he saw of the face it was a man’s face but cleanly shaven although the elder could see the shadow where a beard would grow. It was just the breasts that confused the look. Maybe he was suffering from a curse.

It starts

Right after the elder said a greeting and the High Human male, or female turned to face him, a rolling cloud quickly covered the valley blocking out the moonlight. He looked up to the sky and became fearful.

The High Human seeing the expression and realizing that this was either a vivid dream or injury related hallucination decided to play it safe, and not assume what they saw was reality. After all they had two firearms on their person right now, and this could complicate matters if they used them illegally.

Off in the distance was a loud inhuman screech. Both the elder and the High Human turned to face the direction of the sound.

The Elder then ordered his people inside the Keep.

The elder knew that the High Human most likely did not speak common yet, and had a spell prepared for this. He quickly and in a friendly manner offered a hand in greeting, the high human complied and shook his hand. While they shook the elder released the prepared spell. This caused the High Human to pass out, the elder caught them and held them until they regained awareness.

“Are you well, High Human?” the Elder asked in common.

“High Human?” they responded confused, and slightly groggy from being exposed to two very powerful spells in less than five minutes.

“Fear not human, we mean you no harm” the elder said in the common tongue, “we are in desperate need of a hero, as a great beast from the pit is hunting our people nightly for food. Please we will offer you any riches you desire if you can help us defeat this monster.”

“Umm, yah, clearly I’m injured and hallucinating badly, if you can just call the paramedics, I’ll store my firearms in the locked weapons safe I have in the house.” They said. Hoping that they were speaking clearer than they were hearing. Now would be a bad time to do anything rash. Hopefully after a few minutes of clear air the hallucination would fade.

“Oh, dear me, no you are not hallucinating,” the elder said, “I used a hero summoning to bring forth a powerful beast or hero from the mysterious world of High Humans. What you are seeing is true, and please whatever weapons you have bring them, for surely, they are needed as our people’s lives are in great danger, also how should I call you, and are you a man or a woman?”

This caused them to blink and wonder, because this hallucination was too realistic for even the best LSD, which they had experimented with in Europe after they left the Marines. In fact, none of the tell tells for hallucinations where there, the air felt normal, their insides didn’t have any heightened awareness, they could think clearly, and their back still hurt.

“Rudina, Transgender Woman” she replied to the question, “although I’m a rather bad example of a Trans-woman.” She said.

The elder didn’t understand what a ‘transwoman’ was but he adjusted his vocabulary to reflect that she was a woman. She was definitely a woman with heroic proportions, which was to be expected of High Humans.

He led her to the Keeps main gate, where the guards on the wall where clearly casting spells and firing arrows at someone or something. The elder led her up a stair on the side of the wall and showed her what was on the other side.

From her point of view

She followed the demon looking old man up the stairs to the keep’s walls. Next to the main gate she saw a classic medieval village, in the traditional old Germanic style. In the town square looked like a ruined M1-Abrams with its main gun pointing at a cave entrance that spanned the entire valley that the village sat in, it was about 200 feet tall and about a quarter mile wide. Standing just inside the village at about 500 yards was a monster in the classic Japanese monster movie kind of way. It stood about 50 to 60 feet tall, had a torso shaped like a human with a strange yet humanoid head, it’s lower body however was that of a massive spider, with eight segmented legs and made from black spiky material. The head however was a mix of both Human and spider features. It most likely was male, however one could never assume. It was carefully examining each house in the town looking for easy prey while ignoring the defenders on the keep’s walls.

This was surprising that the arrows actually where hitting its torso, they just didn’t seem to do any damage. While the spells seemed to hit what for lack of a better word was a forcefield of some kind.

She asked the old man, “What is that, spider giant man thingy?”

“The enemy, a monster probably created by the Dark Elves of the Abyss, it’s like a giant male arachne, or possibly a Demi- arachne.” He stated trying to sound like he knew what it was, even though he was just as clueless as she was. He had never seen or heard of a creature like this before.

Rudina, unslung her rifle and assumed a left-handed shooter kneel. She checked the range, took control of her breathing and lined up a shot.

Crack

The entire valley echoed at the sound of her shot. She hit the target, although it had clearly already lost energy at that distance. “Not the right rifle for this.” She mumbled. While holding her position and aim.

The spider monster slowly turned around and faced the wall looking to see what caused the sound. It started to slowly walk towards the gate.

“Well this is better.” She said as the monster was now in the effective range of her weapon.

Crack pause Crack she fired two more rounds.

Both aimed at the large easy to target head, one of its eight eyes were clearly hit and was leaking bluish green goo.

She then fired two more shots aiming for the eyes. Scoring two more busted eyes.

She then informed the elder, “I need to reload, I’ll be right back, good thing he’s so slow.”

She jumped down the stairs and ran to the door of her house. Once inside her armory room she set her rifle on the workbench and opened one of the safes and took out her big Winchester Model 70 Alaskan and the box of ammunition under it, she then closed the safe. This was a bear killer, it was a large bolt action rifle with a three-round capacity with one additional chambered. Hopefully this isn’t a hallucination she thought as she ran back to the front gate, the spider monster was now really close, and she could see its head before she got to the gate. She took the box of ammo and raced back to her previous firing position on the wall, she also noted that she was not in as much physical pain as she was used to.

The spider monster was now really close, and she could see its head before she got to the gate.

Once on top she opened the box of ammo, and loaded 3 in the weapon, and added the 4^th to the chamber. She then relaxed her mind, looked up as the monster was now reaching for a mage on the opposite side of the gate on the wall near her. This was going to be close she thought.

Guns vs melee

Blam slide, slide Blam slide, slide Blam slide, slide Blam

Four perfect shots, four eyes ruined. It was however eating the mage that it had grabbed, it was a gut-wrenching sight as the monster had a mix of spider like drinking fangs and humanlike chewing teeth. The monster was clearly not being wounded severely even though its eyes were being blinded.

“What the hell man,” she complained to the elder who was next to her “he’s not even phased by the loosing of seven of his eyes.” as she was reloading as fast as she could.

The monster let out a hissing roar that sounded like a cross between an angry man and a reptile.

It smashed the gate wide open and entered the courtyard. The guards on the walls and the acolytes and village elder all started attacking with their best attacks. They aimed for any possible weak spot.

Rudina then aimed her Rifle at the back of its head and repeated shooting all four shots in a close grouping hoping that something would get through its thick hide, or shell it had for skin. Sadly, all it seemed to do was anger the creature, as it stomped on her home and more or less flattening it.

She was getting very angry now. And reloaded quickly, this monster would never understand how much work it took to get that home on a Cal-Vet, and she still had 20 more years of payments left. Plus, everything she owned and loved was in there.

Blam slide, slide Blam slide, slide Blam slide, slide Blam

The monster however was grabbing and killing all the guards and mages it could see, it fortunately wasn’t eating them, that would have been too much for her to bare again, that was just plain to gross.

The village elder was tearful and clearly trying his best, but all the spell work he had been doing had cost him a lot of energy, plus he cared and loved each person that he was seeing torn apart by the ‘demi-arachne giant’.

He looked to the hero and wondered what he could do to increase her power.

He used the last bit of his spell power to cast the only spell he had memorized that day for martial ability, ‘Mighty Wallop, Greater’.

It gave the person benefiting from it the ability to fight at an increased size level. Since he was a high-level wizard, he knew she would be equal to the monster’s size, and because of her build she might just be able to beat it in hand to hand. He cast the spell and touched her shoulder.

“Rudina, your loud weapon has blinded it mostly” he said, “but his natural armor is resilient to all but melee attacks, I just cast a spell on you which should make it possible to fight it in hand to hand. Provided you know how to fight unarmed.”

“ohhh, kay” she said reluctantly, she wasn’t in pain like she normally would be. In fact, back hadn’t troubled her once since this happened. “Why not, we’re dead anyway as he’s killed just about everyone else and will be reaching for us soon.”

She then set her weapon down and ran along the wall until she was right next to it abdomen. She jumped onto it’s back and sprinted towards the humanoid back and executed a lunging punch something like what Goku might have done.

CRACK

The blow hit it hard, and its unclothed back was cracked visibly, it was leaking green blue goo form the wound.

The beast was stunned for a moment, so she jumped up and grabbed it by the hair on the back of its head. She started to punch its head and neck repeatedly with one hand while holding its hair with the other, each blow sounded nearly as loud as a rifle shot. The repeated blows however did not crack the skin like the running blow did. The monster was clearly reacting to the attacks she made and tried to grab her with its arms.

She took ahold of one of the arms and kicked off its neck as hard as she could, to her surprise the force of her action ripped the arm clean off at the shoulder, the beast screamed in a loud and painful screech, and bolted back to the cave entrance, and vanished from sight in a blur of speed, that startled everyone.

The survivors gathered around the ruined house and Rudina who sat there covered in goo still holding an arm the size of a telephone pole she then passed out exhausted.